China as Most Favored Nation
... the United States with low cost goods. (=)The growing U.S. trade imbalance with China, and the exclusive market segments of China's trade regime have become of major concern to many U.S. policymakers. Over the past few years, the U.S. trade deficit with China has surged. It rose to nearly 50 billion in 1997 and could top or exceed 60 billion in 1998. China's trade policies have become a focal point in the annual congressional debate over renewing China's most-favored-nation trade status. Along with other non-trade issues, including but not limited to human rights violations, weapons sales, and foreign policy issues. Over the past several years, efforts have been made in Congress to terminate, or attach additional conditions to, China's most-favored-nation trade status, although none have as of yet succeeded. This policy was opposed by the Bush Administration, which sought to deal with these issues outside the most-favored-nation trade status process. As a result, President Bush vetoed congressional attempts to revoke or condition China's most-favored-nation trade status, and such vetoes were consistently sustained in the Senate. As a presidential candidate, Bill Clinton criticized the Bush Administration's China policy and pledged to take a tougher approach to United States-Chinese trade relations, including conditioning China's most-favored-nation trade status renewal. To date many of the very same issues that the United State objected to in the past are still going on every day in China. From the American political viewpoint it would seem only right to continue to renew China’s most-favored-nation trade status. Politicians are concerned about is whether or not the United States economy is strong and if it is not, then finding something that they can do to make it that the economy is getting better. So most of the world turns a blind eye to many of the issues that China is currently having and just disregards them. This meaning that if there were any human rights violations or other types of acts that violated the pact that China signed to earn most-favored-nation trade status, then the United States have a responsibility. A responsibility to do whatever it can as the United States to ease and or end any of the suffering or unfair hardship that the people of China are currently experiencing. It is our duty as human beings to ensure that a high global standard of living. This should be the bottom line. Because the way that it seems now, the United States is much more concerned about getting inexpensive goods from China and being able to help China update its infrastructure. The question that has to be asked annually when a vote about China’s most-favored-nation trade status comes up is that if it is all right for China to do the things that they do. If we decide that China’s violations of their most-favored-nation trade status are not forgivable then the United States need to cut its economic ties with China. Decisions like these would be very difficult for the economies of both nations, but it comes down to the fact that money is not the most import thing. Other values have to be placed before the interest of making as much money as possible. (-) Other concerns about future dealings with China have also arisen. The United States has voiced its concerns in recent about China's missile and nuclear proliferation activities. These concerns led the United States to limit United States exports to China of supercomputers, satellites and parts, and missile technology. Why is our most favored trading partner-stockpiling weapons? For what reason is China moving nuclear related materials and technology to Pakistan? Needless to say these were some very unsettling events that took place in the early months of 1996. Actions likes these could very well be reason alone for China to lose its most-favored-nation trade status. But yet they were allowed to keep it. The United States Customs Service has found evidence on multiple occasions that China has attempted to circumvent or otherwise break United States textile quotas laws. This was done by transshipping Chinese products through other countries to the United States by the use of false country of origin labels. Another method was the misclassification of textile and apparel products. The United States Customs Service estimates that such transshipments and other circumvention methods may total up to two billion dollars each year. In addition, the United States has charged that certain Chinese entities have sought to avoid United States tariffs by undervaluing textile and apparel shipments On January 6,1994, the United States announced that a large reduction of 25-35% below the 1993 level of China's textile and apparel quota would result due to China's refusal to accept anti-circumvention provisions in a new textile agreement. The new quota levels were set to take effect on January 17, 1994. However, on that date, the United States and China came up with a new textile agreement that would effectively reduce the growth rate of China's textile exports to the United States by allowing United States to significantly reduce China's quotas if China violates the agreement through transshipments. Charges by the United States Customs Service of illegal transshipments by China have led the United States on separate occasions since the signing of the agreement to reduce China's textile and apparel quotas on specific products. The most recent incident occurred on September 6, 1996, when the U.S.T.R. announced that the United States would impose a $19 million dollar punitive charge against China's 1996 textile quota allowance due to China's repeated violations of the United States-China textile agreement dealing with illegal transshipments. China in turn has threatened to fight back by imposing restrictions on the importation of certain United States products. I can only begin to imagine the great cost that it takes on a yearly basis to keep a watchful eye on the export practices of the Chinese textile and apparel industries. As if the problem of Chinese textile and apparel exports were not bad enough already there is information that would led to cast an even darker shadow on this portion of the Chinese economy. It is believed the use of forced labor is widespread and a long-standing and accepted practice in many parts of China. Evidence leads us to believe that China might be using forced labor on a large scale in hopes to increase its exports, and a significant number of these products may be for the United States. I have a problem with making people work against their will. I just think that it is just another form of slavery, and at all cost the United States should try to limit its dealing with nation who use economic practices that involve forced labor of any kind. Another problem with the Chinese exporting goods that may be produced in a forced labor environment is that it not legal. United States law prohibits importing goods or other commodities from any country produced through the use of forced labor, although getting actual proof of violations for certain imported goods is and will remain to be a very large challenge. In 1994 despite supposed violation, China’s most-favored-nation trade status was renewed. The renewal of China’s most-favored-nation trade status came with the ideal in mind that China would follow the guidelines on the use of prison labor that it had agreed to two years before. In 1996 it was said that the progress that China had made in reducing the exports produced by prison labor export was good enough to warrant the renewal of most-favored-nation trade status. Only two years later the United States Customs Service confirmed that an iron firm in China had been using prison labor and then illegally exporting their product to the United States. As a result the United States Customs Service placed a important restriction on all product from that iron. So what does this mean? As I have shown cases where China does not follow rules that are to govern its most-favored-nation trade status, nothing more than a fine or non-acceptance of their product ever happens. I cannot say that I really see the point of the United States having some of the laws that it does. Laws are written and then when they are broken they are not enforced to the severity to which they were broken. China is being treated like it has unconditional trade status. As of the last time I checked China has most-favored-nation trade status that is still very much conditional on many things. And it would appear that on more than one occasion the United States has caught China breaking laws, rules, or other governing factors that should at least result in some type of economic sanctions. But what happens is that every time that China’s most-favored-nation trade status comes up for vote they campaign really hard to convince us that they are really work to try to improve the condition of their nation. So what ends up taking place is that when the United States tries to follow through with China’s punishment for doing something wrong they then make threats to turn it all around and counter attack us. We try to enforce agreement that they have signed and we end up in an economic power play. To solve this one of several things needs to happen. First, just accept the fact they were caught trying to sneak around United States Customs laws and take the according penalty. Second, the United States must sticks to the agreement and pacts that it has made with China. When a violation is committed the United States just does what it should do by fining or posing other such penalties for that said action, and it does not worry about the possibility of counter threat from China. Third, would be to just step back from a crack down of Chinese infractions and rework our foreign trade status policies. In particular, Congress would have to reword or void Title IV of the Trade Act of 1974, commonly known as the Jackson-Vanik Amendment. Which prohibits the President of the United States from granting most-favored-nation trade status to China on a permanent, unconditional basis. Heck, since the United States has not cared enough to pull most-favored-nation trade status from China why not grant unconditional trade status to the People Republic. I do not know which of the three above ideas is the best, but I do have a very interesting thought about the first one. If the United States is going to stand by and let China break the agreement that we have set then what is the point of having these rules or laws in the first place? If we can accept the fact that China is breaking our laws then we can also understand that this behavior can very well lead to a state of anarchy and lawlessness. These are all things that are breed by a lack of law, a...